The State : Cancer Source Not Found

Another study has failed to turn up any single connection among a dozen cancers of various types that struck children in McFarland early in this decade. Between Feb. 6 and April 28, a medical team from the state Department of Health examined 1,885 McFarland children, which represented 95% of all the children ages 1 to 12 who live in the Kern County community and surrounding farming area. As was the case with earlier studies, this one pinpointed no single environmental or other cause for the childhood cancers, said Dr. Rick Kreutzer, a state public health officer. "Using the technology now available, it would appear at this point that we cannot find anything in the McFarland environment that makes it unusual or more dangerous to the residents," Kreutzer said.